Charming
by Kessie-Louise
Summary: A four piece character study on four different ZX characters; Prometheus, Pandora, Master Albert, and an OC. Set around the same frame of time wherein the human OC becomes the Sage Trinity's publicity photographer and later Master Albert's... pet. The fifth chapter is a mix of these personalities together to show how they get along. [AU-ish]
1. Pandora: Free

_I'm not beat up by this yet; you can't tell me to regret;_

 _In the dark since the day we met; fire help me to forget!_

 _-Florence and the Machine (Which Witch)_

. . .

 _Fear the child who never speaks, for she thinks of things not all men can handle._

. . .

From the moment we are born, we are destined to die. Some of us are lucky enough to not even make it out of the womb.

Some times I wonder… I wonder what would have happened to my brother and me if we were to be born human. Would we have died within the womb? Would we still be tied to the demon that takes form as Biometal W? Could we have lived in a dull, human world where the Game of Destiny didn't seem to exist and we had nothing else to die but keep living until we died? Some times I wonder… I wonder what it would take to be a human, if only… if only for a tiny chance in time.

Master Albert insists that being human is nothing what it seems to be. They are all cheaters, and liars, and sinners cursed to spread nothing but sadness against the earth. Why else would their God abandon them although they were in need of help? But, I have learned that Master Albert is a man who feels his morals were pushed onto him by an unforgiving force- and for the longest time, I believed him. I believed humans were evil creatures with no hope and that they must burn for the crimes they have committed against the very land they destroyed to create better societies for themselves. I believed that humans had no other place to go then down, down into Hell where their Maker with punish them with the upmost anger and distain. However, where there is a Hell, there is an equal and opposite Heaven that would provide hope to the ones who preserved the land, and stood for what they believed in.

At first, I thought that she was going to be just like any other human. I thought she was the archetype of every human female I have either come in contact with or have heard about before. She wasn't. She surprised me. She… she was like a colorful light, and I was the insect attracted to its splendor.

But I was not attracted to her.

I did not fawn after her with romantic or sexual attraction, hoping that perhaps the feeling was mutual.

No. Even if I did feel that way at some point, there was no reason for it. Being a Reploid designed before the Sage Trinity passed the notion of Reploid lifespans, I knew and fully acknowledged that human and Reploid relations were taboo. I found it as another curse placed upon the humans; doomed to place their affections on creatures that would eventually surpass them in worldly endeavors. The way I saw her was with the same curiosities as a biochemist studying a rare cell with a short lifespan. She was a fascination to study, but she was never something that would stay for long.

I never quite found out what my brother thought of her. She took to the Sage Trinity as if they were her uncles; she and Master Mikhail took an instant shine to each other- laughing, joking, having pleasant conversations about the world and who they had met on their travels. It was because he was once a Reploid, I'm sure, and she was a human that once had very good relations with a Reploid- it helped her see Reploids in a light that not all humans are capable of seeing. Between her and Master Thomas, it took some time for them to even have enough liking in either of them to have a small chat over how cold the coffee was that morning. Their relationship was boring to watch and duller than an endless rain.

But we all knew what Master Albert thought of her; she was his pet. She was the expensive little Louis Vuitton handbag draped over his arm any time he went out for a big gala. He knew how to make her look stunning, and in turn she boasted his ego with enough attention to flood the earth twice over. I suppose, if I were to ever choose a chance to be jealous of her, I would choose the times when she made every member of the Sage Trinity remember their earthly desires and lust. I do not think Master Albert loved her, not truly -and perhaps the feeling was mutual- but there was something that always seemed to spark between them when she was dressed as sweetly as a china doll on display. An odd feeling used to brew inside of me as I watched her flaunt around, almost unknowingly attracting those of both human and Reploid origin, with all the freedom of the world. He never gave us that kind of freedom. Ever. There were times when we were expected to clean up nicely and stand pretty in front of an enormous crowd as the Sage Trinity delivered a long boring speech on the same issues as before.

She did it better.

She was always better.

She was free too.

She was born a free human without needing another to watch over them, keeping them contained for a purpose that was never addressed or clearly understood. She didn't have to live a life believing that there was nothing more to the world than pain and suffering. She would never have to go through a Game designed to do more harm than good. She would never know, never understand, the way it feels to… to…

I…

I wonder what she did with our picture. I wonder if she still has it. I wonder if… I wonder if she likes me…


	2. Juno (OC): Hired

I guess it all kind of started when I was a student at a local art school. I really wanted to get into the kind of photography that would make your grandmother blush like a schoolgirl. Don't ask me why, I've just always been drawn to that kind of stuff…. well, that and Maverick outbreaks, but that's beside the point. It was a project for my class that I got mixed up with the Reploids the world would eventually come to fear as the 'Witch' and the 'Reaper'. I first noticed her, she was holding onto her brother's arm as if her life depended on it. They were walking along the sidewalk carefully as if they were expecting a trip wire somewhere but it was her that caught my eye.

She was really pretty you know, before… everything happened that took away their innocence. I honestly could never wrap my mind around it; how could two creatures, so timid and certain of their world, go on to do such atrocious acts of violence toward their own kind and humans alike? But I approached her first, rather forgetting that she was attached to her brother, and requested that she be my model for a shot or two. Not a spare second that my request left my lips, her brother started to ask me this laundry list of questions that all had something to do with who I was, what I wanted to with her, if I knew their creator, and the rest of that kind of stuff. It surprised me. When you ask most people if you can take their picture, they either give a short no or you boost their ego for the day with a yes. But it wasn't this way with him.

He made me feel as if I had been caught sticking my hand into the cookie jar five minutes before dinner.

Embarrassed with cheeks burning fiercer than fire, I explained to him my project for school for nearly fifteen minutes. He listened with a deep intent, while she gave me this funny look that made me think she was scanning me nude or something. It felt weird, and it _was_ weird. After some time, he finally decided that I should see his creator, a notion that his sister didn't take too kindly to. She had mumbled something about their creator not being happy when he finds out that they've been 'let loose' again. Her brother either ignored her, or he knew it full well and figured taking me straight to his creator could alleviate a part of their punishment. Maybe.

Imagine, as a young art student around seventeen years old, how surprised I was that the creator of the two Reploids I wanted to photograph were designed by Master Albert of the Sage Trinity.

Admittedly, I wasn't really into who or what the Sage Trinity was at the time. I was still a kid at the time, but that didn't mean I haven't heard of them before. Master Albert's general presence was overwhelming. I don't know what it was about him, but when he told me to tell him about me, I told him everything that I could easily recall. I told him that I was a victim of a Maverick outbreak when I was three, causing the doctors to rescue me to replace both tendons in my feet with cybernetic counterparts because the Mavericks had fired near the area and it nearly burned the skin enough to hit the muscle. I then told him that I was in the middle of the deadly Area H Maverick attack that left me to an inch of my life, a hero in red saved me on that day and after that I worked and lived at a local transporter service because that was where I had woken up. I worked for the transporter service for three years before I decided to go into photography, which is what led to me having to explain all of this to him. For a moment, all Master Albert did was sit back and think over what I had told him. I felt so… bad. I had this feeling that was equal to the way you feel when you just know something horrible is going to happen, like… like the death of someone. You could see it on his face.

"I believe you."

That was what he had said- as if I needed his approval or if there was any doubt that I would lie to him about that. But it was what he said next that nearly shook me to the core.

He _hired_ me.

Master Albert proposed that I be the Sage Trinity's personal photographer- the person that would follow them around and take good shots that helped the public see that the Trinity was there to protect them, to serve the masses, to be the everyman to change the world. Of course I agreed. What idiot wouldn't agree to a deal like that?

It wasn't until my eighteenth birthday that Master Albert and I became more intimate.

When I think about it, it was more for appearances than anything. I was loved by a Reploid before, and I knew that look in his eye whenever I walked into the room or I said his name in passing- Master Albert never had that look in his eye when I came into the room, or when I said his name is passing. I learned a lot about Master Albert's past and it wasn't too difficult a pill for me to swallow that he could never really love someone. I understood, but I still felt as if I knew so little about him.

I don't think I ever understood how little I knew about him until the whole Ouroboros fiasco…


	3. Prometheus: Disturbia

_I was born an original sinner, I was born from original sin._

 _And if I had a dollar bill for all the things I've done;_

 _There'd be a mountain of money piled up to my chin!_

 _\- Eurythmics (Missionary Man)_

 _. . ._

 _The Reaper comes to sow your soul back into the ground from which it grew._

. . .

Death is its own kind of beauty- no two deaths are the same, yet there is still a pattern of how we leave the world.

I wished, oh like hell I wished, that she would die. Knowing that she had survived more than one Maverick outbreak did not improve my mood about her. There is no human, no Reploid either, with that kind of tenacity. My sister found that that girl's interactions with Master Albert to be solely based on infatuation- anyone with a brain would have seen that the two did not share anything in common. He didn't want her for someone to love -and if he did, why couldn't he love the two creatures that he hand made himself? No, Master Albert wanted her and kept her around for so long because she was a survivor.

She was a freak, just like the rest of us.

She was a retarded little freak who wouldn't die.

Perhaps I didn't hate her enough when all said and done. There were moment where, all she did was walk into the room and you could feel yourself experience emotions that would have otherwise been barren. A tingle, an obnoxious little feeling that made you want to do things you wouldn't normally think of. It effected everyone, that stupid feeling, including my sister. God, it was terrifying watching her -even more so when she insisted that she never did what she doing- and in passing, I came to realize that the way she acted was the way that I did. You think death is terrifying? Try having to feel an emotion you're not used to that seizes every part of your body when a creature you swear you hate walks into the room. You could say that there's a name for it; but why would I say it out loud when I know that is not the way _I'd_ describe it?

Regardless, Master Albert treated that woman the way that he should have treated us. He gave her attention, freedom, and spoiled her in the richest of goods. It was as if he was purposely torturing us through these actions toward her. It was no wonder my sister normally felt jealous- it was no wonder that I felt like ripping her head off.

Not that she didn't deserve it.

She deserved every bit of punishment that she should have gotten. It should have been the same amount of punishment we got when we disobeyed Master Albert.

It was my idea to go out into the town that day we met her. I had goaded my sister into coming with me although she insisted that we would be in trouble. When Master Albert didn't let us out under his permission, we found our own means of escaping his eye. If he found us (four times out of ten, did he ever, thank you) then he would give us the attention that troublemakers deserved. The attention that most parenting books recommend that you don't feed your child- that was the attention that my sister and I normally received. Did we go out of our way to receive this attention? My sister never intentionally did, but it was more thrilling when one would do so on purpose…

He never told us about his little 'game' until she was gone. If I had knew about it before hand, I would have gone to great lengths to see if she was a part of this 'game' as well. I have confident that she is- I have all reasons to believe that he gave her the ability to control the greatest Biometal that has ever existed, a Biometal that rivals the power of the cursed fragment that courses through the bodies of me and my sister. She was Master Albert's pet after all; he liked her for a reason. Not everyone could survive a Maverick outbreak -intentional or not- and surely someone who could deal with the same devastation more than once deserves a reward for being so… stubborn to die. Ah yes, I believe that Master Albert gave his little pet more than us, even in these new bodies that draw out the pure power of the greatest Biometal fragment this world has ever seen before, she is still getting better treatment from Master Albert than what he had ever shown us.

I bet she'll die when she tries that Biometal on for the first time.

It has to be the only solution.

You can't survive the widespread hatred, panic, and death that Mavericks create more than once. And if you could, just like her, you have to be outfitted with something more powerful that could slowly corrupt every fiber of your being so that you are nothing more than bones when your lifeline disconnects from the Biometal.

No matter how powerful you are, you have to die some time sweetie.


	4. Albert: Game

_You cannot change a broken lens without removing the glass, so why must we remove the men who see the world through their own broken lens?_

. . .

The world is cold place where there is no light to shine upon the damned creatures that roam it.

Doctor Barlet Weil was a man who did not know where his true heart lied, and he was punished by having his soul encased in the very metal fragments he built for himself. His soul screams to be released, but the call will always go unanswered. He will watch the world burn from is stationary state- the only influence he has on the world know is through those worthless pieces of scrap. Warping the minds of innocent, yet scarred individuals no matter where they have hailed from; but what use is this ability when you cannot draw the power from such reorganization?

This is why the world must be reset.

Barlet Weil is a monster; failing to see where the love of his life truly is, failing to see that he ignored the ones that mattered the most, failing to see that he caused more pain from his own battlefield than with an outdated space colony. Now he is trapped in a space where he cannot see, nor can he talk to anyone through normal means. Now he will suffer as everything falls into place to replace what he has destroyed.

Like minded Reploids infused with the power of a disgraceful man.

A sweet little pair, one destined to cut down the other no matter what timeline.

The rise of a pacifist hero who breaks the lines of what it takes to be human.

Villains filled with an evil that was gained or have no reason to exist.

Do you see it now? Do you see why the world must be reset? Do you understand why this must be done, to purge the earth of all its evils so that a new sense of goodness can reign back in? History can only repeat itself so many times, and yet we still can not learn from it. It doesn't matter how many times we come to the same conclusion, we can not be saved from our own inevitable disasters. What Weil has done to the world will forever taint it -unless it was tainted before his time, when the pure thought of Reploids were nothing more than a dream- and the evil felt must be burned in the deepest hell fire to prevent further contamination. It can be viewed as nothing more than a game, a game in which there is only one winner, no matter what the rules could say. The rules mean nothing when everyone is going to lose.

I created DAN 001 and DAN 002 for the sole purpose of harvesting the raw power of Biometal W to destroy what Weil had created. They were to be the knights of the Game, overseeing and executing those who could or could not play. They were not meant to grow an independence from their orders, but such a thing only happened because of her.

Juno: A subspecies of the Iris genus of flowers, a satellite orbiting the planet Jupiter, a species of butterfly with orange, clownfish like wings, a Roman goddess who was the queen of the gods. Juno was an interesting being to happen to come this way. She was a survivor of not one, but two Maverick outbreaks that killed more lives than those saved. With such will to survive, of course she was inducted into the Game- and yet, DAN 001 and DAN 002 are not aware of the role she plays. Without her help, the discovery of six other Biometals never would have been known. She has become the match for the greatest Biometal that could ever surpass whatever Biometal that may come out there- a Biometal more powerful than the 'red savior' she spoke of that somehow led her to a transport service.

There is no doubt that she will die when she merges with Biometal O, but that is simply how the Game is played.

With every game, there are those players who choose to begin and start to play illegally. For decades, before Weil was even considered a remote threat, a pair of twins were created from both human and Reploid DNA. It has taken them a long time to grow and not many even know that they exist. Of course, it was a hush-hush situation to begin with, those who knew were involved with the growth of the anomalies. Eventually, those involved with the operation would mysteriously disappear or be found dead. Surely, illegal players and their third party tampers should be punished for their crimes, yes?

Through the Game, the world is about to change. Through the Game, we will usher in a new era that will no longer be tainted by the sins of our fathers. Through the Game, we will die but we will grow stronger than before if one manages to survive. Are you going to survive it?


	5. All: Camera

"Do you have to touch me there?" Prometheus asked as Juno adjusted his fingers into a position more pleasing for the camera. The human looked at the Reploid with a pretty little smile.

"Are you ticklish in your fingers?" she mused playfully. "I didn't think Reploids had nerve endings that acted like that."

Prometheus glared at her before snatching his hand away from her. "I don't." he hissed at her. The human only laughed at him, which made the Reploid grimace. Pandora who sat nearby jumped at the sound of Juno's spontaneous laughter.

"Alright," Juno then said as she went back over to her tripod and camera, "With that look, I think I should take the picture now."

"Don't see why you have to take pictures of anything around here…." Prometheus grumbled as Juno prepared the camera. "No one's that exciting."

"Dora, can you help bring the softbox closer?" Juno then said, ignoring Prometheus with a teasing smile. Again, Pandora jumped- this time from hearing Juno call her by her apparent nickname, but she got up to do as she asked.

"Here?" Pandora asked after moving the softbox a few inches closer to Prometheus, who then proceeded to act as if the light was blinding him although it was still well enough away from him.

Juno looked into the camera to check how the shot would look. The human then walked over to the softbox herself and helped Pandora move it a bit to the right. Pandora's body locked up little by little the closer Juno was to her, but she relaxed the moment Juno returned to the camera.

"Alright Seuss," Juno then instructed while taking a deep sigh out, "Gimme a glare."

Prometheus's expression didn't change, yet Juno snapped several photos anyway. It wasn't much more than a minute before Juno stepped away from the camera to get something out of a black duffel bag that sat nearby.

"Am I done?" Prometheus impatiently asked as Juno dug around the duffel bag.

"Depends." Juno told him with a little tilt of her head. "I was thinking about doing something different."

"What?" Prometheus and Pandora both asked at the same time, their tones, however, not as in sync. In a way of answering them, Juno pulled out a small ballpoint pen-like object from the bag. The human looked over the pen curiously before pressing down a small button located at the top; it wasn't a second more that the shutter went off on the camera, surprising the Reploid siblings equally.

"Ha, it still works!" Juno remarked as she worked on standing up again.

"What happened?" Pandora asked quietly, looking at the camera darkly as if it had spoke ill about her. "You told us that camera doesn't have an AI to it!"

"It doesn't." Juno assured. "I found the remote shutter controller. I thought the power in that thing died ages ago."

"Why do you need a remote shutter controller?" Prometheus questioned.

"Because I want to take another picture." Juno said, simply enough.

Prometheus scoffed. "How is that any different from the ones you've been violating us with?" he spat.

"I don't mind being framed..." Pandora spoke up in a tiny voice. Prometheus then shot her a less than friendly look that sent the invisible message of him wanting her to watch what she says. Juno seemed to ignore them as she let out a light giggle.

"This time, I'm going to be in the picture with you." Juno told them. "The remote shutter controller makes it, like, fifty times easier for me to do that."

"You want a picture… with us?" Prometheus asked, giving Juno a doubtful look. "Why on earth would you want to do that?"

Juno looked up at the Reploid and gave him a smile that nearly made him forget to stand.

"Why wouldn't I want to take pictures of my best friends?" she asked him. For several minutes, the Reploid siblings only stood in silence; perhaps with had been from the usage of the word 'friend' and how little it was used around (or about) them. Or, maybe, it was because of something else that created an obnoxious feeling of being nothing more than just a friend.

"So… one more picture?" Juno asked, holding up the remote. The Reploids did not give an answer and instead stared at the remote as if it were radioactive plutonium.

If the Reploids were going to answer, they had wasted enough time that someone came into the room so that they couldn't answer. The three of them turned around to see Master Albert standing at the door. His face was blank as he studied them and the makeshift portrait studio that Juno had set up.

"Juno..." Master Albert then started to say, his voice chillingly calm, "What did I tell you about the statuses of Prometheus and Pandora?"

Juno didn't respond at first as she looked over her photography stuff as if she was suddenly aware of it. She then looked back up at him with an innocent smile.

"Albert," she then started to say charmingly, "What did I tell you about hobbies?"

At the same time, sensing the same danger, Prometheus and Pandora took a step back. Master Albert and Juno gave each other only a single expression, each ruling out the other in a perfect yin-yang. It was Master Albert who broke their gazes at each other- he turned to look at the Reploid siblings, who seemed to shrink a bit from under his eye.

"Out." Master Albert then instructed in a short tone.

"Yes sir." Prometheus immediately said as he took his sister by the hand and led them both out the door. Master Albert wasted no time in shutting the door behind them, almost shutting it in their faces. For a few minutes, the two looked from each other to the door before Pandora leaned in to temptation and put her ear on the door.

"Stop that." Prometheus hissed at her, knowing that Master Albert could likely still hear them through the steel door. "You know that he's trying to do the only thing he thinks can control her- you're not going to get anything out of them except for constipated moaning."

Pandora ignored her brother before she realized that she could hear the shutter close on the camera.

"She's taking pictures again..." Pandora told her brother softly. For a moment, Prometheus gave an expression that almost didn't want to look disgusted.

"Humans." he finally spat. "Disgusting freaks of nature. Come on Pandora, we should get out of here before Master Albert comes out."

Acknowledging her brother with a small nod, Pandora kept her ear pressed to the door for a few moments longer. When she did back up, she looked as if she had heard something that suggested that more than pictures were being taken in the room…

"She laughed..." Pandora mumbled. "And she said..."

"I don't want to hear it." Prometheus hissed at her.

"She said that-"

"Pandora!"

"She said that he could do better than that."

Prometheus stared at his sister with wide, dangerous eyes before smacking her on the back of her head out of spite. She whipped her head around to look at him as if she were surprised that he had done that- truthfully, she knew why and didn't complain. She let out too much information, and he had warned her to stop. She deserved it.

"Let's _go_." Prometheus told her again. "Before he comes out."

This time, Pandora nodded and followed her brother as the retreated back to their room.


End file.
